2nd SHIFT Concert: Rhyton

Brooklyn’s Rhyton (Dave Shuford, Jimy SeiTang, and Rob Smith) are experimentalists and improvisers who draw inspiration from a variety of sources: Greek folk music, American psychedelia, North African rhythms and more.

The trio honed their skills in projects like The No-Neck Blues Band, Pigeons, and Stygian Stride. All three members have played a significant role in shaping New York City’s improvisational scene, which has, of late, captured the attention of both national and international audiences

<photo credit: Japeth Mennes>

Tiny Mix Tapes calls Shuford “one of the most consistently inventive and interesting guitarists of the contemporary rock underground” and goes on to say that while “psychedelic rock is no longer confined to a certain decade... Rhyton harks back to an era when bands like Jefferson Airplane and even The Byrds were looking as much to John Coltrane and Elvin Jones as they were to their rock ‘n’ roll contemporaries — which is to say that Rhyton’s roots are in intelligently expressive and economical group communication.”

Rhyton’s newest album, Redshift, finds the band expanding its sound –– and defying expectations ­­–– by creating a galactic country throw-down where roots music jostles with alien frequencies. Elsewhere, Shuford plays Greek folk instruments, explores new tunings and wrangles weird and beautiful sounds from his guitar. The band explores and dissects themes in searing extended improvisations that can only be described as otherworldly.

A PopMatters discussion of one song says a lot about where the band is coming from these days:

“The title track sounds like straight-on barroom country at the start… but as the song choogles along, pulling you into its catchy, dust-covered stomp, the song bottoms out into dissonance, into a series of pulsing electronics, ebbs and flows of sound that could be broadcast out into the ether to wait on some otherworldly response. The two parts seem wholly disconnected, in one way, and perfectly linked in another, the physicality of the country-rock giving way to atmospheric feeling, to the ringing in your ears and the twitching in your limbs only great music can leave you with.”

Redshift was recorded with Jason Meagher at Black Dirt Studio (Steve Gunn, Black Twig Pickers, Pelt, Jack Rose). Rhyton will be playing select events this fall, and we know that no two shows will be alike.